There’s a paradox I’ve wrestled with for years: I’ve built tools, frameworks, and dashboards to help teams interpret experience data—but part of me wishes they never saw the numbers at all.
Why? Because the data isn’t the point. The human experience is.
When teams fixate on NPS, top box scores, percentiles, or statistical significance, we risk forgetting what the numbers stand for. They’re not abstract metrics—they’re echoes of real moments in people’s lives. A survey response isn’t just an answer. It’s a pulse. A plea. A story.
We didn’t enter healthcare—or leadership, or service—to analyze data. We entered to care. To inform. To earn trust. To relieve suffering. And yes, the numbers can help. They offer direction, highlight gaps, and show us the micro-moments that matter. But numbers alone won’t move hearts. And they won’t inspire change.
If you’re presenting figures without framing their meaning, you’re disenfranchising the very people who come to work each day to serve—not to analyze.
We see this tension everywhere. In healthcare dramas like The Pitt, where clinicians battle administrators over satisfaction scores. In boardrooms where dashboards eclipse dialogue. In team huddles where metrics are recited but meaning is lost.
But this isn’t fiction—it’s a mirror.
Until we honor the emotional reality behind the data, we won’t bridge the chasm between metrics and meaning. We won’t build trust. And we won’t lead with empathy.
So next time you’re discussing wait times, skip the stats. Talk about how people feel while waiting. What did they hear? What did they need? Did we explain? Did we comfort?
The ultimate question isn’t, “Did we score well?”
It’s, “Did we make someone feel seen? Safe? Heard?”
Let’s turn data into narrative. Metrics into mission. Stories into strategy.
That’s how we transform the human experience—and rehumanize leadership, service, and care.